By now, TCU’s domination of the Longhorns since joining the Big 12 is well-trod ground. TCU has won seven of nine. More illuminating though is that TCU coach Gary Patterson is 1-1 versus Mack Brown, 3-0 versus Charley Strong, and 3-1 against Tom Herman.
According to 247 Sports, TCU’s recruiting class rankings nationally were No. 25 in 2018, No. 31 in 2019, No. 23 in 2020, and No. 53 in 2021. Texas’s rankings were No. 3, No. 3, No. 8, and No. 15. Obviously, this rivalry over recent years should be more even than it is.
TCU’s current dominance over Texas can be summed up by a famous Bum Phillips quote about Bear Bryant. “Bryant can take his’n and beat your’n, and then he can turn around and take your’n and beat his’n.” In the current vernacular, Gary Patterson and his staff has been “pantsing” Texas’s head coaches and their staffs.
Steve Sarkisian doesn’t have to account for Gary Patterson’s “pantsing” of former Texas coaches, but this game will be a difficult test for Sark. He failed miserably the test in Fayetteville and is looking for his first road victory as the Texas head coach in Ft. Worth. His road record is not good as I pointed out after the Arkansas game. Sarkisian’s record on the road as a head coach is 10-22. If you take out his first two years after taking over an 0-12 Washington team his road record is 7-14.
The TCU game is an opportunity for Sarkisian to pass a big road test and set up the Longhorns for good season. If Texas loses there’ll be a big road monkey on Sark’s back.
Blasphemous?
Hey, any chance that Casey Thompson is better than Sam Ehlinger? Thompson is on kind of a roll leading Texas to 24 scores in the 27 drives he’s led. He makes quicker decisions than Ehlinger did and so far, he’s been a more accurate passer. Okay, it’s way too early to be talking about this and maybe Ehlinger would have been way better with Sark as his coach and offensive coordinator.
Gracious in defeat?
Gary Patterson whined earlier this week that SMU had pre-planned the attempt to plant their flag on TCU’s field after the game. So what if they did? Does that mean they were confident of beating you on your home field Gary?
Patterson further claimed that an SMU player hit TCU assistant Jerry Kill with a helmet and gave him a concussion during the scuffle that ensued during the attempt to plant the flag. He revised his story to Kill being knocked down during the fracas though video confirms that Kill was knocked down by TCU players. Then Patterson revised his story again saying Kill was knocked down, but he doesn’t know by which team’s players but if there wasn’t the flag-planting Kill wouldn’t have been injured.
You go Gary!
Did You know?
TCU is 19-21 against over the past five years against Big 12 teams other than Texas. They’re 4-1 versus Texas over the last five years. I guess Texas has been saving Gary Patterson’s job.
Bijan vs Zach Evans
Speaking of recruiting, Bijan Robinson was the No. 1 running back prospect in the nation in 2020 according to 247 Sports. Zach Evans was one spot behind him. Robinson and Evans were the No. 15 and 16 recruits respectively overall.
Through three games this season Evans has 330 rushing yards averaging 7.9 yards per carry. Uh oh. Robinson, through four games, has 436 yards rushing and averages 6.2 yards per carry.
Robinson versus Evans is an interesting game within the game. It’s not Vince Young versus Reggie Bush but it’s not bad.
The Game
Sarkisian is going to have to do a better job than he did in Fayetteville adjusting on the fly his offensive tactics to beat TCU. My man Paul Wadlington in his TCU preview suggested that Gary Patterson could try to take Xavier Worthy out of the game and blitz frequently. Seems like Sarkisian would have an answer for Worthy being blanketed but I worry about the blitzing.
Defensively Texas needs to eliminate the running threat from TCU quarterback Max Duggan. Concede that Zach Evans will get his yards but don’t get fooled by play-action and get burned by the deep ball like they did against Arkansas.
As in every game, turnovers, if they occur, will be difficult for either team to overcome.
Texas is favored by 4.5.
I’m really looking forward to this one.
Texas vs TCU 1982
Earlier this week I was talking to a longtime friend of mine who is planning on going to the game on Saturday. He’s not exactly sanguine about the Longhorns W-L record in road games that he attends. I think he said every time he goes to the Texas-TCU game in Ft. Worth the Longhorns lose and some of his friends are taking up a collection to pay him not to go to Ft. Worth Saturday.
The conversation reminded me that Texas is 2-0 versus TCU in games that I’ve attended in Ft. Worth. I went in 2013 and 1982.
It certainly isn’t monumental in Texas Football history, but I have fond memories of my trip to Ft. Worth in 1982. I really liked our 1982 team though going into the TCU game the Longhorns’ record was an average by 1982 standards 5-2. Texas had lost a close game to Oklahoma that they had a chance to win late in the 4th quarter and suffered a heartbreaking 30-17 loss in Austin that was much closer than the score indicates.
In 1982 I was 27, living in Austin in a one-bedroom apartment on Barton Hills drive which was a three-minute walk from Barton Springs. I spent about half my weekends that year in Dallas hanging out with my friend and boss Mike Frank, my friend David Bergstrom and my girlfriend who was working as an accountant at Sanger-Harris, her first job after graduating from UT that spring. In addition to having a great social life in Dallas, I owned a 1982 Mazda RX-7 that I really, really enjoyed driving so the otherwise boring drive up I35 was actually pretty fun for me. I recall one trip in particular when after passing through West, Texas, I set the cruise on 100. The speed limit in those days was 55 by the way. It was somewhere around Waxahachie when I spotted a cop car in my rearview mirror that I estimated was about ¼ of a mile behind me. This literally almost scared the piss out of me since I was traveling with some illegal substances. Of course, I slowed down to 55 and then pulled over in a rest stop where I watched the cop car continue driving north, uninterested, or unaware of the white RX-7 that had been doing 100 since West. Phew. Remind me of this the next time I accuse a 20 something of being stupid.
Anyway, after spending Friday night in Dallas, David Bergstrom our girlfriends, and I drove over to Ft. Worth for the game. I had a stress-free relationship with the girl I was dating because the relationship was low stakes since I knew it wasn’t long-term. I had someone else in mind for that. Without reviewing the Texas Football archives my memory of the game is that it wasn’t the easy win for the Longhorns that I was anticipating but eventually the Horns put TCU away relatively comfortably. After reviewing the box score of the game, I see that TCU had the halftime lead 21-17 and that Texas pulled away in the 4th quarter winning 38-21. My memory that it was beautiful autumn football weather that day is confirmed by the box score that reports that it was sunny and 50 at the 2 pm kickoff.
During the game, we followed the SMU-Texas Tech game being played in Lubbock by watching the periodic posting of the score on the Amon Carter Stadium scoreboard. The Pony Express was in first place in the Southwest Conference, highly ranked, and a big favorite over Tech. The game was surprisingly close which got my hopes up for a Tech win which would put Texas back into the race with SMU to win the conference.
During the walk to our car after the game, we heard from someone who was listening to the SMU-Tech game on a transistor radio that Tech had tied the game with only seconds remaining. I was gleeful. A few minutes later, just as we arrived at our car, we got another report that SMU’s Bobby Leach had returned a kickoff for a touchdown at the gun to give SMU the win. Crap! How the hell did that happen? David’s girlfriend laughed at my outrage and disappointment.
Oh well.
Hook ‘Em,
W.E.
[gravityform id =”94″]
